The moment Jason LeBlanc remembers most clearly did not happen in the rush of a dinner service. It came when friends, family and neighbours filled the Coastal Restaurant in Ingonish Beach to watch its episode of Food Network Canada’s You Gotta Eat Here! for the first time. Co-owners Jason and Keith Moore put out appetizers, poured drinks and waited with the rest of the room.
When the episode came on, Jason found himself overwhelmed. It was the biggest career moment of his life.
“It was like, wow, we accomplished this through hard work,” he recalls.
The appearance brought new attention to the restaurant and its towering Ringer Burger, but the emotion was about more than publicity. It was proof that a casual idea between two hospitality students had become something real. As Keith and Jason mark 20 years as owners, that night stands as one bright moment in a much longer story of friendship, persistence and constant adaptation.
From “What If” to “Let’s Do It”
Keith and Jason met while studying hospitality at Cape Breton University. Work placements brought them to Keltic Lodge in Ingonish, where they became roommates and began talking about owning a place of their own one day. At first, it was simply a “what if” shared by two friends.
Then, in 2005, Jason stopped at Coastal for dinner and heard that owner Frank Warren was looking to sell. Jason had a coveted job at the golf course in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, while Keith was managing at Dundee Resort & Golf Club. Both had steady work, but Jason wanted to build something of his own.
“I called Keith and said, ‘Guess what? There’s a restaurant for sale. You want to buy it?’” Jason recalls.
While Jason was ready immediately, Keith took a little more convincing. The pair also faced a practical obstacle: another prospective buyer had money, and they did not.
“We didn’t have two pennies to rub together,” Jason says with a laugh. “All we could offer was work ethic.”
Fortunately, Warren saw more than their bank balance. He saw two young men with drive and a clear picture of what the restaurant could become, and he chose them. Keith and Jason took over in the spring of 2006 and incorporated the business the following year.
Bringing It Up a Notch
The Coastal they purchased did not exactly match their style and vision but over time Keith and Jason made changes gradually, pulling up the carpet and shifting the room toward the relaxed atmosphere they had imagined.
Their vision was straightforward: generous comfort food, warm service and an easygoing place where families would feel at home. They introduced hearty pastas, seafood chowder, polished desserts and oversized gourmet burgers.
“We wanted to bring it up a notch,” they say.
As two owners who were not originally from Ingonish, winning local trust took time. But the Ringer Burger earned a following, and that following caught the attention of a television production team searching online for restaurants to feature.
The Food Network appearance changed the pace almost overnight. A dining room that once had no lineup could suddenly have a 90-minute wait. Travellers continued to arrive years later after seeing reruns in Canada and abroad.
“It solidified us and legitimized us, I guess, in the community and around the island,” Jason says.
Today, the Ringer remains the top seller. Keith and Jason estimate they serve 3,000 to 4,000 during a six-month season, with every patty mixed by hand using their own seasoning. More than a bestseller, the burger helped turn the restaurant into a point of local pride.
Doing Whatever the Business Needed
Success at a seasonal restaurant on the Cabot Trail has meant never standing still. Keith and Jason added a pub, catered weddings and special events, expanded into vacation rentals and built a motorcoach segment of the business serving cruise-ship visitors travelling from Sydney.
Their willingness to adapt is best captured by the day a tour bus broke down on Cape Smokey. Rather than cancel, they packed the buffet, warming equipment and coffee urns and served the group at a picnic park on the mountain.
“Did we ever say no?” they joke. “We’ll do anything for the business.”
That resourcefulness was present from the beginning. The CBDC self-employment program provided training and income support during their first year, allowing them to leave wages in the fragile new business and build a small cushion for the second season.
“If we didn’t have the SEB program, we wouldn’t have done it,” they say. “It was the turning point, really, to get us going. CBDC was hard on us at the beginning, but they needed to be; food service is a tough industry. They took a chance on us, and we proved ourselves.”
They also found mentors who stayed beside them when the numbers were difficult. Accountant and business adviser Eric Schibler volunteered years of guidance, helping structure the purchase, plan projects and keep spending in check. Original owner Frank Warren became an equally important supporter.
During one hard year, when the pair were short on cashflow and had used personal credit to cover payroll, they asked whether Warren wanted the restaurant back.
“Not a chance,” Warren told them. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about paying me right now.”
That faith mattered, as did the discipline those difficult years produced.
A Partnership That Works
Twenty years in, the partnership itself may be their quietest achievement. Keith handles baking and prep, oversees the rentals and manages motorcoach visits. Jason looks after bookkeeping, payroll, staffing, food orders and plenty of cooking. Together, they shape the menu and dining room and talk with customers.
“Some of the stuff that Jay does, I don’t like to do, and the stuff that I do, Jay naturally doesn’t like to do,” Keith says. “For us, it gels well.”
In the early days, both served breakfast and became their own bussers and dishwashers because they could not afford extra hands. That habit of stepping in for each other never left. Their shared vision has carried them through lean winters, a pandemic and the everyday pressures of food service with remarkably little conflict.
The same continuity extends to the team. In peak season, Coastal employs about 23 people. Some have stayed for years or even decades, including a cook completing her 35th (and final) summer. Both owners’ children have worked there too.
Some customers return every summer, including guests who have visited throughout Keith and Jason’s ownership. Those relationships, and employees who return season after season, offer a measure of success no sales report can capture.
“Seeing people come back year after year, and staff come year after year, shows that we built something people like,” they say.
The Long View
COVID-19 brought the hardest recent test. Just before the shutdown, Keith and Jason had invested much of their savings in a fourth rental. Suddenly the outlook was less than optimal.
They cut expenses, reduced hours and once again took on nearly every job themselves. They kept their payments current and preserved what they had built; when travel returned, 2022 brought packed evenings and lineups once again.
Now they are looking ahead with the clear eyes of people who know both the rewards and physical toll of a restaurant career. Their long-standing goal is to reach 25 years. As new development brings energy to Ingonish, they are preparing the restaurant and rentals for sustained growth and, eventually, for the right next owner.
For now, though, there is still pleasure in a well-built plate, a busy room and a burger rising nearly eight inches high. There is pride, too, in the projects that carry the story of two decades.
“You look around at all the projects, the painting and the floor, and it’s like: we did it all,” Keith says.
The Coastal Restaurant began as a “what if” between two friends. Twenty years later, the answer is all around them: in a dining room filled with returning guests, in a team that spans generations, and in a business built one season, one adjustment and one generous plate at a time.